DUNLAP — There would be 30 third-graders in Amy Winkleman's and Beth Schlueter's overstuffed classrooms inside Banner Elementary School this school year, but one family withdrew a twin from each one to home-school their children instead.

So there are only 29.

By public education standards, that's a lot.

"(Their mother) addressed the School Board with her concerns at the beginning of the school year, but when it became clear they weren't going to hire another teacher, she pulled them out of school," Winkleman said Monday. "As a teacher it is my responsibility to meet the educational needs of my students. This year, I don't feel like I'm meeting the task."

With 17 consecutive years of student population growth — an average annual gain of 160 students this century — Dunlap Community Unit School District 323 is familiar with the consequences of overcrowding. It's why the district has built three new schools since 2001; a freshman academy wing, auditorium, and 19 new classrooms at the high school; and a six-classroom addition at Banner. Another addition to the high school is under construction, and a plan to build a 1,200-student-capacity elementary school, two years after the opening of 750-student Hickory Grove Elementary, has been shelved, but only for the moment.

But this year's overcrowding is different, next year's even more so. The district is operating under a $750,000 deficit in 2013-14 and projects a $2.1 million deficit in 2014-15. That's uncharted territory for Dunlap. To bridge the gap, the district has proposed laying off up to 17 teachers and has placed a moratorium next year on the hiring of new teachers at the start of the year, regardless of how many more students show up for the new school year.

"Overcrowding in the schools is not news. We've been dealing with the issue for as long as I've been here," Superintendent Jay Marino said last week. "That said, reducing teachers to help close next year's deficit is not going to help."

The deficit and the proposed layoffs are straining the school community. The School Board has hosted three public venting sessions for residents that lasted a combined four hours and sent more than 70 parents, students and teachers to the microphone.

Most pleaded with the board and the administration to abandon the layoff plan. And they praised the district's teachers, most of whom attended the meetings wearing black solidarity T-shirts for the teachers' union and stood up every time a teacher addressed the board and superintendent.

One mother said she was considering home-schooling her children instead of sending them back to a crowded classroom. Megan Vonesh, a second-grade teacher at Banner, publicly questioned whether she had erred in leaving a tenured position in another district to come to Dunlap. And both Schlueter and Winkleman said they would consider a career change rather than endure the rigors of teaching more students than they can effectively reach.

Page 2 of 3 - "Both April and I have felt like different teachers this year," Schlueter said at last week's meeting. "We're tremendously frustrated, and have questions considering whether we should stay in our careers."

There is not crowding in every classroom in every school in the district. In fact, the opening of Hickory Grove a half-mile down Allen Road from Banner eased really bad overcrowding at Banner beginning with the 2012-13 school year.

But simple math illuminates the potential for a crowded school year next year in some schools. There are about 250 teachers in the Dunlap Education Association. There likely will be 17 fewer next year. And if 105 more students show up in August at the start of the school year, as was the case in August 2013 — the smallest increase since 2004 — there will be no contingency plan in the budget for the emergency hire of teachers.

In a typical year, the district budgets $600,000 in case the student population increase dictates the need for more. That buys about 10 first-year teachers with the cost of salaries and benefits.

"Next year," said Banner Principal Greg Fairchild, "I know not to ask for more teachers."

The district won't guarantee that elementary school students will be assigned to a classroom in the school building closest to their home, Marino said. If a class is full in one building (25 students in kindergarten and first and second grades, 30 students in grades three, four and five) the student will be placed in a class that isn't full in another building.

Marino said the layoff proposal might create some hardships in the district next year, but that it should be enough to steady the financial course in the future.

"It has been a painstaking process to mitigate the deficit," Marino said. "Every decision we've made has been made with the understanding that they have the least effect on the student."

"We have guided reading groups that meet in groups of four or five or six students," she said. "If you had 21 students in the past and now you have 29 students, it's like adding two whole reading groups. The more reading groups, the less time spent on other activities. A large group effects every aspect of the job."

Schlueter, who also teaches third grade at Banner, said her class is doing more work at their desks, because there is not enough room in the classroom for other types of activities.

"It's hard. It's challenging. It's difficult to meet the needs of the students," she said. "Hopefully, it's a short-term problem, but right now second grades (at Banner) are sitting at 58."

If that number holds, that would mean at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year, Schlueter and Winkleman each would have 29 students in their classrooms.

Page 3 of 3 - Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 or shilyard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @scotthilyard.